You describe yourself as a "Navy Brat," do you think all that moving around helped you develop your musical creativity? 

It gave me exposure to a lot of different instructors - all who had a different perspective on what defined "good" music. It also gave me a chance at different techniques - I learned rudimentary classical Spanish finger style, a little Pentatonic rock, blues, jazz comping and chord melody. When I compose, I stir in all these ingredients, heat at 350 for an hour or so, and out pops a track like "Fritata" or "Coast to Coast."

You currently live in two places in the U.S. now and the locations are pretty far apart from each other (Burlington, VT and San Diego, CA)... how do you divide your time between these two places?

I have business offices on both coasts, so let's just say I'm really familiar with the "Red Eye" out of Long Beach to JFK. I don't really have preference - when I'm on either coast for too long I miss the other one. I don't try to escape winter in Vermont or the dry heat of San Diego in the summer. I feel fortunate in that I don't get used to either environment such that I lose sensitivity to the beauty that exists there.

Is this bi-coastal living the inspiration for your newest release COAST TO COAST?

The COAST TO COST theme came to me on a trip from VT out to San Diego to "mix and fix" the tracks for the CD with my producer, Jeff Forrest. Going over the playlist, I tried to remember how each song was derived, and in many cases I could trace a song's "birth" to an impression or experience gathered while traveling within this huge country of ours. So COAST TO COST is more a description of both ends of a continuum consisting of everywhere in between. As a player and composer, I attach a musical connotation to everything I experience, including the geography - to me New Orleans is gumbo and the Neville Brothers, New York is Manhattan and John Pizzarelli...

What other instruments do you play in addition to the guitar?

I play the bass, some piano, but I'm probably best on the "Dell" or the "Hewlett Packard." As an electrical engineer, I learned about MIDI, analog synths and music synthesis a long time ago. Because of my work schedule today, I can't commit to time with a group, so I gravitated first to programs like "Band in a Box," and later on to sequencer programs, and loops, samples, etc. that allow me to create a "virtual" group that doesn't complain when I have to be in NYC on a day's notice instead of making practice. They always show up for the 2AM sessions on Sunday morning when I get an idea for a song, and once I teach them their parts, they never make mistakes.

My "group" played all the background tracks for the CD. "We"developed almost all the background tracks in my home studio in Vermont. Jeff and I collaborated with DVDs back and forth until we got it right, then Jeff added live drums to many of the tracks, and we got Mitch Manker to add the sweet horn parts you hear on tracks like "GeeBees" in his studio in El Cajon CA. Jeff really likes all the "guys" in my "group" too - he doesn't have to mike them in his studio, or listen to them rag because they just lost a fight with their girlfriend...

Who are your biggest musical influences?

Many. Mom had operatic training and aspirations. Dad was a dancer in his youth. My uncle was a Julliard graduate. My brothers and brother-in-law have an established rock group,"The Kyniptionz," in San Diego. There was always music in my home. Off the top of my head, influences throughout my
life include Wes Montgomery, Kenny Burrell, Chuck Loeb, Lee Ritenour, Norman Brown, the Mighty Clouds of Joy, The Gospelaires, Chet Atkins, the Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Andre Segovia, Joe Pass. I also have to mention my teacher and mentor Paul Asbell. Paul is the guitarist and
composer in Kilamanjaro, a jazz-fusion group of no small repute in the 70's and a player with eclectic skills. He can speak blues and bluegrass as fluently as he speaks jazz and lord can he speak jazz! By the way, watch for the release a new CD by Kilamanjaro coming soon. I've heard some of the tracks and Im psyched.

Okay, gotta ask... how'd you come up with Terry Toonz?

LoonyToonz, minus Loony plus Terry! Remember the first scene in just about every cartoon you watched as a kid? Those old cartoons were designed to make you laugh... not cynically or derisively. Instead, innocently and honestly, an expression of joy like the music I try to make. My mission is to spread joy and TerryToonz is the vehicle. Every other project I do will have a title that includes "TerryToonz". For example, after Terry Toonz: COAST TO COST will come TerryToonz: GRAFITTI - Im about halfway through the project and hope to be ready for production in the Spring of next year.